07.10 - Day 266 - Rome to Bagnoregio, ITA

Monday 7th October - Roma - Bagnoregio, Italy (Day 266)

It’s not often you can walk to and from another country before breakfast, but even when I arrive at Vatican City around 6:30 am after a 15 minute walk, there’s still a small queue of people going through the bag scanner. 

But it means I’m one of the first into St Peter's Basilica which is immensely impressive for scale and yet intricacy of the paintings. There’s a carved marble statue where the marble looks incredibly like cotton sheets with its rippled waves. 

Back at the monastery for breakfast beginning at 8 am, ready for some more exploring. We catch two (very crowded) buses over to the Colosseum, queuing then for tickets. 

You can book online in advance, but you need to specify the day and hour time slot at least 48 hours in advance, which we were grateful we didn’t end up doing so we could be more flexible with the weather. 

The queue moved and there was room for the kids to jump around to the side, making the 20-30 minute wait more bearable for everyone. 

Inside, it is heaving and perhaps understandably when they can’t see over people (and not watch Gladiator) Sienna and Seb are underwhelmed. 

Only when we reach the upper floor, stop to snack and give Sienna the chance to read a little about the Colosseum out loud, so they start to come round. 

We realise we should have done a bit of pre-reading to brush up on the history - there are no plaques or info boards to read - to help bring it to life for Sienna and Seb. 

Perhaps that explains why there’s so many groups of tour guides streaming past. It’s undoubtedly an amazing structure but perhaps too crowded for us. 

And it’s another queue to enter the Palatine and Forum - as usual we end up in conversation with people around; inevitably here in Rome Americans, we’ve heard a lot of the. The area does allow great views of the Colosseum and whilst we gawk at all the ruins around us, again it wears thin on Sienna and Seb. 

Bussing back to the monastery, it’s a late cafe lunch, where the chance of unlimited choice from the dessert bar almost causes more stress than enjoyment for Sienna - though eventually she’s happy with her chocolate wrapped in chocolate choice. 

We drive easily enough to the village of Bagnoregio a few hours north. 

Some accommodation is found once we know exactly where we want to be, but sometimes we only have a general area we can end up in villages like this because this accommodation is a particularly high scoring place. This Palazzo Granaroli has four floors and even a piano, down a tight cobbled alley. It certainly has its (low doorway) charm.